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An 18-wheeler rests on its side Monday in the northbound lanes of the Dallas North Tollway near Belt Line Road in Addison.

Update at 12:51 p.m.: The NTTA reports that the overturned truck has been cleared and all lanes of the Dallas North Tollway have reopened.

Update: The NTTA announced at 10 a.m. that all northbound lanes of the Dallas North Tollway were closed as work continued to set an overturned 18-wheeler upright. The inside southbound lane also remained closed while to reposition the concrete median barriers.

Original post: An overturned 18-wheeler is causing major traffic trouble on the Dallas North Tollway near Belt Line Road in Addison.

The truck overturned in the northbound lanes, and two lanes on that side are shut down as crews work to set the truck upright. One southbound lane is also closed.

An alert from the North Texas Tollway Authority offers no indication when the road will be cleared, only an advisory that “motorists should expect delays.” There was also no immediate word on what caused the accident.

A MAX bus was ready to roll before dawn this morning in Arlington. (Sarah Hoffman/Staff Photographer)

Update at 9:45 a.m. by Meagan Clark:

Arlington rolled out its first commuter bus, the Metro ArlingtonXpress, before dawn Monday.

“As of 5:35 this morning, we are no longer the largest city in the nation without public transportation,” Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck said.

The MAX buses are a two-year pilot program jointly operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority. They connect College Park Center on the UT Arlington campus to the Trinity Railway Express CentrePort/DFW Airport Station and will run 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays.

Although passengers can get a free pass this month, after that a $5 fare gets you on the bus and on the TRE or any DART or T bus or train for the day. Monthly passes are $80.

“Try that with your car,” Cluck said of the cost savings. “It doesn’t work.”

The program allows for unlimited free 30-minute rides, but there rental rates apply for longer usage. Prepaid memberships also will be available.

The nonprofit’s Executive Director, Kristen Camareno, told the Star-Telegram that she hopes to expand from 30 stations and 300 bicycles to 50 and 500 within the next two years.

Fort Worth is the third city in Texas, following Houston and San Antonio, to have such a program.

Our Michael Lindenberger reported last summer that the program would be coming to Fort Worth and that Dallas had also applied for the same kind of federal grant that funded Fort Worth Bike sharing. But due to availability of funds vs. grants requested, Dallas instead received federal funding for new DART buses.

Orange construction barrels and backed-up traffic have been the norm for commuters traveling highways 114 and 121 through Grapevine since construction began on the DFW Connector project in February 2010.

The story goes on to say that commuters frustrated by the ongoing construction should get some relief soon: a new flyover bridge connecting southbound International Parkway to eastbound Texas 114 is supposed to open this weekend, and the William D. Tate Avenue bridge is now open to six lanes of traffic.

The project is designed to “untangle the famously traffic-clogged interchange between State Highway 114 and State Highway 121 near downtown Grapevine,” as our own Michael Lindenberger wrote in February 2010, right before construction got under way.

Michael also reported last fall that driving on highways 114 and 121 had become much more dangerous since the construction started. Researchers estimated that the number of crashes on highways involved in the project was 52 percent higher overall — and 74 percent higher on weekends, when workers were busiest — than it would have been without the construction.

The study also noted that the percentage of drivers using cellphones was higher in the construction zone than on Dallas-area roads as a whole. But researchers said they couldn’t draw a correlation between cellphone use and the higher number of crashes. They counted phone users only during the day, and most of the increase in crashes came at night, when workers were closing lanes and rerouting traffic flow.

DART chairman and former Irving City Council member John Carter Danish welcomed the arrival of the Orange Line to his hometown Friday.

The 29-year old agency is celebrating its latest milestone this weekend as it opens its fourth light rail line. Three stations begin operations Monday, and plans call for the line to run all the way to D/FW International Airport by 2014.

A crowd of VIPs gathered Friday to view examples of art that will adorn the stations and to hear state and federal officials speak about the expansion.

In an interview, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said she helped pass the first measure in the Texas Legislature that allowed cities — at the time, Houston and San Antonio — to hold transit votes. Dallas and neighboring cities created Dallas Area Rapid Transit in 1983.

In her time in the U.S. Senate, Hutchison has played a key role in DART’s growth by supporting development of its light rail system, which initiated service in 1996.

According to its website, the agency was created in June 2009 when Governor Rick Perry signed House Bill 3097 in law. The DMV was created to relieve the Texas Department of Transportation of the burden of some administrative functions, including vehicle registration and titling and issuing motor carrier operating authority.

From breaking news editor Emily Tsao:
It was a hairy morning for Dallas commuters heading north on Interstate 35E near Manana Drive. According to KDFW-TV, a trailer became detached from an 18-wheeler and was later struck by another truck driver. The early-morning collision caused the trailer carrying curling irons, hair dryers and brushes to flip over.

Dallas police say no injuries were reported. But traffic remained jammed for several hours this morning as crews tried to clean up the mess.